Assessment in counseling chapter 1

 Involves some type of measurement Involves gathering samples of behavior, making inferences What is Assessment?...  American Counseling Association’s Code of Ethics 2005  Research

Assessment in

Counseling

Chapter 1

 Involves some type of measurement

 Involves gathering samples of behavior,

making inferences

What is Assessment?

 Assessment

 Appraisal

 Testing

 Tests vs instruments

Terminology

 American Counseling Association’s Code of

Ethics (2005)

 Research on counselors’ test usage

Do Counselors Need to Know about Assessment?

 Essential steps in counseling:

1 Assessing the client problem(s)

2 Conceptualizing and defining the client

problem(s)

3 Selecting and implementing effective

treatment(s)

4 Evaluating the counseling

Assessment is Integral to

Counseling

 Therapeutic assessment model (Finn, 2007)

 Better outcomes, improved perception of

counselor

 Clients with eating disorders

 Assisting clients in decision making

Assessment Can Be

Therapeutic

 7 areas of training (American Counseling Association, 2003):

1) Skill in practice and knowledge of theory relevant to the testing context and type of

counseling specialty

2) A thorough understanding of testing theory, techniques of test construction, test reliability and validity

3) A working knowledge of sampling techniques, norms, and descriptive, correlational and

predictive statistics

4) Ability to review, select, and administer tests appropriate for clients or students and the context of the counseling practice

5) Skills in administration of tests and interpretation of test scores

6) Knowledge of the impact of diversity on testing accuracy, including age, gender,

ethnicity, race, disability, and linguistic differences

7) Knowledge and skill in the professionally responsible use of assessment and evaluation

practice

What do counselors need

to know?

 Standardized vs Nonstandardized

 Individual vs Group

 Objective vs Subjective

 Verbal vs Nonverbal

 Speed vs Power

Types of Assessment

Tools

 Cognitive instruments  cognition,

perceiving, processing, concrete & abstract

thinking, remembering

 Intelligence/general ability tests

 Achievement tests

 Aptitude tests

values, motives, temperament, non-cognitive aspects of personality

 Structured personality instruments

 Projective techniques

Cognitive vs Affective

Tools

History

 Greeks – 2500 years ago

 Chinese – 2000 years ago

 Francis Galton – credited with launching the testing movement

 Wilhelm Wundt – credited with founding the science of psychology

 James McKeen Cattell – expanded testing to include memory and other simple mental processes

Early Testing

 Binet-Simon scale (1905)

 Assessed judgment, comprehension &

reasoning

 Ratio of mental age to chronological age (IQ)

 Stanford-Binet scale (1916)

 World War I – group testing (Army Alpha & Army Beta)

Frank Parsons – “father of guidance”

1900 to 1920

 Theoretical debate concerning definition of intelligence

 Interest in assessment spread beyond intelligence – led to development of self-report personality

inventories

 Rorschach inkblots developed in 1921

 Aptitude tests developed for selecting and classifying industrial personnel

 Development of vocational counseling instruments

1920s and 1930s

 Stanford Achievement Test (1923) – first standardized achievement battery

 First edition of Mental Measurements

Yearbook (1939)

1920s and 1930s (cont.)

 Dissatisfaction with existing personality instruments

 Projective techniques became popular

 MMPI developed (early 1940)

 Standardized achievement tests

well-established in public schools

 Multiple aptitude batteries appeared after 1940

1940s and 1950s

 Criticisms of assessment began to emerge

 Need for standards (APA)

 Need for centralized test publication, electronic scoring

1940s and 1950s (cont.)

 Examination and evaluation of testing and

assessment – widespread public concern

 1970s - Grassroots movement for “minimum

competency” testing for high school graduates

 Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (1974)

 Increased use of computers in assessment

1960s and 1970s

 Use of computers blossomed: administration, scoring, interpretation, computer-adapted

testing, report-writing

 Revision of instruments in response to

criticism

 Increasing use of authentic and portfolio

1980s and 1990s

 Influences of technology and the Internet

 Research on multicultural issues

 Achievement testing & No Child Left Behind

 Increased interest in accountability and

effectiveness data

 Revision of Standards and DSM

2000s to the present